


Two Steps Behind

by Ultra



Series: Moments in Time [29]
Category: Leverage
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Guardian Angels, Love, Protective Eliot Spencer, Protectiveness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-17
Updated: 2012-05-17
Packaged: 2020-03-02 19:38:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18817639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: Parker is being followed, and for once, she doesn't mind at all.





	Two Steps Behind

**Author's Note:**

> originally written for hollow_echoes on Livejournal, based on her prompt.

Parker always knew when she was being followed. She wasn’t sure if it was a natural talent or a skill she picked up, she had it so long, and she just never bothered to think about it. The line of work she was in, she had to have her wits about her. No thief was ever truly safe, and she fancied never truly alone. Somebody was always out to get you, or if you were lucky there was always somewhere there watching your back. Either way, you were never entirely alone even when you seemed to be. Parker knew that better than anyone, and now more than ever.

The team didn’t understand. She tried to explain at first, but when they started looking at her like she needed a psych eval, she stopped. Eliot said it was okay, that it was a lot for them to take in and to understand. She knew he could’ve understood if she tried to explain it to him, only he was the one person who didn’t need the explanation.

So many times he seemed mad at her, called her twenty pounds of crazy, or gave her that look like he thought she lost her mind. Parker paid no mind to it then or now. He meant no harm, and deep inside she knew he cared about her, as she cared about him, they just weren’t the kind of people to say it out-loud.

It showed more in the way they acted when the going got tough. He was always there to catch her when she leapt into the unknown, always waiting around the corner to beat down the guy on her tail. When he needed a little help to patch up his wounds, hers were the hands that held the bandages or reached to clean the cuts he couldn’t manage himself. They were closer than anyone realised back then, and failed to understand now.

Parker lost count of the hours she spent crying over the loss of a man she never truly understood her own feelings for. She came to realise too late that what she was feeling might very well have been love. She started to wonder about destinies and fates, asking why they had been allowed to be so close so long, only to have him ripped away just when she started to figure out how much she wanted him, needed him, could’ve loved him.

“You’ll go cross-eyed thinkin’ that hard,” he advised her and she looked up from her place on the edge of the bed to see him standing there.

“I knew you were there,” she told him smartly. “You still can’t creep up on me.”

“Darlin’, you know I’m here ‘cause I’m always here,” he reminded her with a look she knew so well.

She had to smile at that. He still had her back even now, even after he was gone, and she was the only one to know about it. He followed her around, on every job, at every turn. There were few times when she couldn’t see him, and even less when she was sure he was really gone a while.

“Don’t you wish you got to be somebody else’s guardian angel or whatever this is?” she waved her hand in the thin air where he appeared to be, her fingers passing straight through his middle.

“Damnit, Parker!” he complained as he watched his own form distort and flicker at her interference.

She giggled when he reached out instinctively to slap her hand away, naturally unable to do anything but pass his arm through her own.

It bothered him, she knew it did, to be impotent in this world now, to only be allowed to watch and yell warnings, never able to deliver the blows to her enemies, or wrap his arms around her when she cried for comfort.

“I’m sorry,” she said on instinct when his eyes went to the ground.

It wasn’t just an apology for messing with him, but more so for reminding him what he didn’t have, what he would never have now.

When he looked up then and met her gaze, he knew she was equally as sorry for her own loss. They had been close, but maybe not close enough. Perhaps that was why he was here now. They wouldn’t tell him exactly, only that he had work to do if he wanted a place upstairs. They chose who he followed, maybe to help her, maybe to punish him, so close and yet so far from what he wanted, like always.

“Darlin’, you can’t be as sorry as I am,” he told her, reaching a hand out to her face.

Though it shouldn’t be possible, his concentration seemed to pay off. Parker was sure she felt his fingers brush her cheek, causing a single tear to fall. This was as close as they could ever be, and it was both better and worse than not having him at all.

“Get some sleep,” he told her gently. “I got a feelin’ tomorrow’s gonna get messy,” he said, watching over her as she laid down on her bed and pulled the comforter up around her and Bunny.

“I’d ask you to stay, but I already know you will.” She smiled, watching his face to the last moment as she turned out the light and Eliot faded into the shadows - he wasn’t gone, he was never truly absent from her.

Whatever she did, wherever she went, Parker always knew she was being followed, and she never wanted that to change.


End file.
